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I have a one-wheeled touring trailer that I hook on to my regular bike when I need to haul something bulky or heavy. It can't haul as much as a bakfiets, but it'd give an Xtracycle a run for its money. It pulls great, it's way cheaper than buying another bike and it takes up way less space, too. Unless you're hauling cargo all the time, I'd highly recommend a one-wheeled Bob Yak trailer.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2012 at 10:30 PM
whose pink brompton?ReplyDeleteReplies
Husband got tired of the raw lacquer and had his painted.Delete
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2012 at 10:50 PM
you're joking.Delete
You got me. The pink Brompton belongs to Harris Cyclery.Delete
Christine and I have been carfree for two and half decades, raised kids & did all the usual stuff without ever owning a cargo bike. Used trailers for some stuff but I haven't really used the trailer for years.ReplyDelete
Yeah, when you have a cargo bike there seems to be a strong urge to cargo stunt with it but stunts aren't the same as needs.
When I first got back into biking, it was an old beater jamis from CL...about two months later, an xtracycle was added...ReplyDelete
while it fit as a short tail, as a long tail it was just too small. i still rode the crap out of it...it was my only bike, but it was too small
I upgraded to a larger frame...and eventually, when employed at a bike shop, took the plunge and scooped up a Big Dummy Frame
By that time, I had a couple of single speed and with the growing knowledge of shop work was patching together something new every few months, riding it for a while and then passing it on to friends and strangers...
Lamont (my big dummy) has seen several iterations, and i still commute on him, but not as often as I once did, more like once a month...not thrice a week like "the good old days"
If you have survived this long without one, and the Radish hasn't convinced you...then save your space and get a trailer (or a friend with a dummy who lives close enough to swing by with a six pack of beer and some good will)
pics of most of the iterations at http://www.flickr.com/photos/26259416@N05/sets/72157616582374565/
Oh the Radish has convinced me of itself. I would rather have it than a trailer, but ultimately don't feel I "need" either.Delete
By the way, I've ridden a Big Dummy and didn't like it; the Radish feels different.
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2012 at 11:16 PM
Didn't like it how? I have been looking at the Big Dummy and would appreciate your feedback.Delete
[First to get this out of the way: just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't; I would encourage you to test ride it.]Delete
I've ridden the Big Dummy twice (two different bikes), but not sufficiently long to warrant a review and didn't have my camera so no pictures. Both times I remember it feeling sort of heavy and sluggish, even though one of them I rode with the bags completely empty. It just didn't "move" in the way I wanted. I know lots of cyclists who love their Big Dummy, but it did not impress me.
It's a bloody Surly after all. I have a few friends with them and have extensive ride time on theirs and others.Delete
They ride to firmly for one person all the time. Ideally it should carry heavier cargo/kids frequently for the ride to smooth out. Otherwise it follows modern carmaker philosphophy: make it stiffer because wiggle is bad and uncontrollable.
The Radish is fun and resilient, by contrast. YMMV.
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2012 at 11:21 PM
When we were childless and carless we also used a trailer simply because it was quite easy to switch from bike to bike and they were fairly cheap and easily stored. With kids off to college and no car once again, I'm scratching my head wondering if cargo bikes might be best or just getting another trailer. I worry that for long rides ( more than 10 miles) the Radish would be too inefficient.ReplyDeleteReplies
I rode the Radish for 15 miles today and could have happily kept going. For an upright bike, it is as efficient as one could hope for IMO.Delete
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2012 at 11:48 PM
I have no doubt that for an upright bike it's as good as any, but my concern is for the long transport rides up hills and across long windy stretches....I guess it all depends on where one lives.Delete
Question about trailers: I can see how they are a good choice for children, pets, square-ish boxes, appliances, and piles of groceries, but it seems to me they will not fit the kind of long objects an Xtracycle is ideal for. Am I wrong about this? When I do need to haul stuff, it so happens that the shape of the stuff lends itself to the Xtracycle system pretty well, which is another reason I am finding the Radish so appealing.ReplyDeleteReplies
Yup. The load is optimized to follow you and take up a minimal width profile, like a surf board. Within limits, of course.Delete
Something not mentioned: a trailer adds another large drag element, the third wheel, and a larger width element. Something to consider on one's choice of routes.Delete
Much of what I ride is Non-frastructure. Trailer wouldn't fit or would tip.
To answer this point by point:Delete
Kids -- depends. Vehicle is longer, kids can't see but for your rear tire. Perhaps unappealing. Plus you can't talk to them.
Pets -- depends on the size.
Square boxes -- depends on how big/how wide your infra is. Less than 1.5ft. fine.
Appliances like refrigerators? Have fun either way.
Groceries -- super easy on LT. Part of the deal with Xtra bags is modularity. You figure it out. BTW stupid plastic one use shopping bags fail miserably on so many levels, including trying to pack the little amoebas into other bags.
I think cargo bikes are the new road bike or mountain bike -- do you really need one? No, not all cargo bikes are created equal.ReplyDelete
The only true test is to ride one, have one, adjust one's life to one.
Say you were to ride this to Mike's shop instead of the Rawland. Which one weighs more, carrying the same stuff. Which one is more efficient, more relaxing, etc. If it is at all comparable then oh boy you're in trouble.
As you know I ride it everywhere. You touched on the fundamental difference between a "normal" bike and a long tail: they are supremely comfortable and relaxing, enable a new level of slowness and seeing.
I love the delta between my really fast bike and the LT, but the ones in between do nothing for me.
This is what we did yesterday: pop up carnival with life-sized human mouse trap rube goldberg contraption. Long ride home on the estuary? No prob, perfect oppty to crack open a beer I'd been carrying all day for this moment. Cold. In cooler.
Oh, forgot something at the store. It's a bag of jasmine rice. 25lbs.? Hit it. Stop at taco truck. Chips suck? Get a big bag of the good ones at the store. Dump dump dump into the bike. Run into a friend and want to go out instead? Leave it in the bike and do it. Hit the single track with nesting killdeer in the sanctuary? Sure!
Sidewalk scavenging? My tool chest is a root cellar that had been sitting on the curb, now in the living room. Guess how it was carried.
From a purely academic/pedantic slant, the long wheelbase allows you to set it up as a racier or Dutchie version very easily without much compromise.
Riding like Jan and Kent on surface streets with periodic use of trailer is great. I think the main difference between built-in cargo capacity 24x7 is the lack of planning and/or pace required. I love lack of structure, we have so much to see.
Don't think of it as a cargo bike. Think of it as a fun bike with a huge X factor.
Oh yeah to answer your question the cargo bike started out as a pleasure/weekend bike only due to massive weekday road riding.ReplyDelete
Now the road bike gets used only when doing speed work or when I have something light to pick up 14 miles away. As a reality check the Radish is quite a bit lighter than many Euro-utility bikes.
I've probably put 10,000 miles on my xtracycle over the past four years, doing everything between grocery shopping to riding brevets (it's kind of slow for brevets, though, so I've switched to bobtail bikes for randonneuring.) The amount of use it gets comes and goes; there are months where I use my porteur bike for most of my in-town riding, other months where I use the xtracycle instead, and the occasional month where I use my midlifecrisismobile (the rando bike) for in-town errands.ReplyDelete
Originally the xtracycle was attached to a first-generation Trek 1000, but, alas, after about 9000 miles I managed to break the glue joint on the nds chainstay, so I had to retire that frame and move the Free Radical (et al) over to a Trek 400 frame of the same vintage.
Oh yes, the cargo bike is addictive. I built my xtracycle saying "I'll ride it 3 days a week and keep running the commuter bike the other days" But as Jim said the ability to pick up pretty much anything on a whim is SO useful. But you know what finally did it? the realisation that my steel frame karate Monkey/Xtracycle with balloon tyres just feels better. Cruising over rough roads carrying whatever I like is just more enjoyable than what I had before.ReplyDelete
ride my Big Dummy about 4 days a week, 52km round trip mostly but trips to the shop and carting stuff as well. It's not a fast ride but it seems to handle whatever I throw at it so I'm happy.ReplyDelete
Cats + skiing = worth waiting for.ReplyDelete
I'm a teacher that commutes by bike, so at least once or twice a week, I'm carrying file boxes, or project equipment, or some such other thing. I can get by with my touring bike equipped with folding baskets on the rear rack and my messenger bag, but it certainly would be nice to have all that stuff on the bike.ReplyDelete
That said, I don't know if I need a long-wheelbase bike that would carry half the neighborhood for this. If so, I'd probably just xtracycle my MTB commuter.
Main ride. It gets probably 95% of the miles.ReplyDelete
I am riding it more frequently now, but that is not entirely because of its cargo-ness; a few years ago I decided that I would try changes, and whatever ended up with me riding more, I would keep that change. That's how it got platform pedals and a substantial chain case. If I could figure out how to put a really convenient lock on it for the front wheel, I would ride it that much more.
The initial main reason I rode it so much was that most of my rides are commutes to work, and my pack is too heavy to be comfortable on my back for the whole trip there and back, and I never much liked panniers. That was initially an xtracycle, more like the Radish you tried.
Beyond that, commuting to work (10 miles) meant that if I wasn't prepared with fenders and light, sometimes I would regret it, so the cargo bike got fenders and good lights. And then I tried Big Apples (which won't fit on most bikes anyway), and they were both faster and more comfortable, and also very slow to lose air, so the bike become ready to ride more often in more conditions. If I was uncertain about conditions on the return ride, it made sense to take the big bike, even if I didn't need the cargo capacity. It's got a wider range of gears than the 3-speed because of the possibility of hills, so if I don't know for sure where I'm going, it's a better choice for that, tool
The combo of long wheelbase and fat tires also gives it a little bit more flexibility than my other bikes. If I want to light it up over rotten surfaces, I can, no problem. Slides are a little slower and more forgiving, so I can recover. I can't bunny hop it, but I can ride it up and down curbs with ease.
And because I ride it so much, it's the bike I'm used to riding, so I feel safer, because that's what all my reflexes are trained for. It's always ready, tires are always inflated.
My experience pretty much echoes GRJs; it's a (big) fun bike.
I'm not surprised that you get a different feel from the Radish; it *is* a smaller bike. I certainly noticed this when I upgraded from xtracycle to Big Dummy, but I am a larger person whose riding style includes "breaking things", and my first impression of the BD was "wow, I was riding a noodle".
20 mile days are common, longest day that I can recall was an even metric century (to Lexington and back, plus a 50 mile ride).
I originally built up my xtracycle as a means to pull my kids in the trailer, and still carry a bunch of stuff. when they were old enough (4 years old), they started sitting on the back, and are still doing so three years later. I now primarily use it for the occasional shopping trip and the twice-a-year bike camping trip we take. And honestly, because it has dynamo lights and is super comfortable, I'll ride it around town, but it's too big and upright for my 40 mile RT commute. If my commute were shorter, I'd be all over this and would have the exact same attitude that GRJim states above.ReplyDelete
If you've gotten by this long without the cargo bike, then i think you can do without. It is nice though to be able to casually grab 2-3 bags of groceries and paper towels and not really think about it.
We single wage slaves with no kids probably never need cargo bikes.ReplyDelete
I last had a car August 2004. With every passing year the need to move lots of stuff becomes less urgent. Nearly every book I could ever want to read is now available online. Even illustrated novels (ok, comic books) are better on the Retina IPad. While my fellow audiophiles may well drum me out of the ranks, I am convinced high definition down loads sound as good as wax.
I've not yet figured a practical and safe way to get my shirts and suits back from the inconveniently distant green cleaner. Not sure a cargo bike would help there. To keep from folding you would need to lay out some large flat board of some sort on the back. Doable no doubt, but more trouble than taking the bus a few times a month.
My LBS has a cargo bike. I see car free families with them. For a lot of us though, they are more than we would ever need. Porteur rack in front of a nimble 650B bike is just fine.Replies
Depends what you mean by folding; you can lay them over the snapdeck, with both ends of the clothing package in the two freeloaders (the large fabric bags). I've done this, and the results were good enough for me. That seems like it would be competitive with a bus trip.Delete
If you wanted to do better, it would require a small amount of DIY; you'd want something taller in back that you could attach the hangers to. Hacking it would be easy, graceful and nice would require some thought.
I just got a Yuba Boda Boda a few weeks ago and find it's perfect for getting the kids to school, then me to work, and it's a really nice ride even without the weight. I've got grocery shopping on it and to the library with both kids on the rear deck.ReplyDelete
I haven't gone for a cargo bike just because when I really think it through I'm just not likely to utilize its capacity very often. Of course, I have a truck so if I'm hauling a lot of stuff or helping someone move I wouldn't be needing a cargo bike anyway.ReplyDelete
I'd also like to state, for the record, that you'll never need it to bring home a Festivus tree, because Festivus is celebrated with a pole. Frank would be raining down blows upon you if he read this.
- AnonymousNovember 13, 2012 at 10:27 AM
I generally take out the Bullitt on Sundays. I don't generally run errands any other day, though, so I guess I use it every day I need it.ReplyDelete
My xtracycle earns its keep not for the cargo "stunts", as Kent puts it, though those are satisfying.ReplyDelete
It's actually the little things like grabbing a few bags of groceries. As many commenters have pointed out, you don't need a cargo bike for that. It's true. But the xtracycle just makes it easy. There's no real thinking about what bag goes where. Just toss 'em in and go.
I liken it to an SUV. I can get a lot done with my one car, a Toyota Corolla. But certain things would just be a hell of a lot easier with an SUV or a minivan. There'd be less complicated trunk tetris. The analogy breaks down with (some of) the downsides. I'm not bothered by my xtracycle's relative inefficiency. It wasn't that expensive. I have a place to keep it.
- MaxUtilityNovember 13, 2012 at 12:17 PM
Ditto to @JB. Like the suburban mom with 1 kid and a minivan the size of a Manhattan apartment, you don't really "need" that space, but it's nice to have and does come in handy occasionally especially when something unexpected comes up.ReplyDelete
My Xtracycle has definitely become my main transport choice, even when carrying nothing. The ride is decent and I purposely built it up with practicality in mind (for urban setting meaning make it ugly, no Brooks saddle, etc.)
Having a kid was the real impetus for the cargo bike and I suspect that's true for a lot of owners. Standard kid seats on bikes are fine for little ones, but you hit the weight cutoff pretty quick. And there's just always stuff to haul with a kid. We do a lot of trips with the kid and his bike on my bike for the traffic heavy/too hilly sections and then he can ride when we get to the good parts.
I'm intrigued by the new mid-tail versions that might be a better balance of haul almost anything without being a little ridiculous for 95% of trips.
- AnonymousNovember 13, 2012 at 12:19 PM
I have a Boda Boda for commuting. Being able to pick my son up on the way home is great. But he is 8, so I recently purchased a Bike Friday tandom for weekend trips since he prefers to ride with me.ReplyDelete
The Boda Boda is much more comfortable to ride than the hybrid I have. The upright position means no more hand pain. Plus it is fun to ride.Replies
I have a Boda Boda as well with the peanut shell for taking my 3.5-yr old to preschool on my way to work. I appreciate being able to haul child + library books + groceries + etc. Like the comfort of sitting upright & enjoying the scenery.Delete
My wife and I purchased a Madsen bucket bike this summer to shuttle our 2 & 4 year old around. This was quite literally my wife's first entry into biking and she loves it. Great thing about the Madsen is the ability to graduate from the bucket to a longtail like cargo bike. Glad I have my other bikes but life with kids and the "bucket" is a whole lot easier than a trailer.Delete
- AnonymousNovember 13, 2012 at 1:14 PM
Bought my xtracycle to haul 2 kids to school across brooklyn. Now one is 9 and other is 7 and they still let me take them-perhaps the biggest change to my cycling habits in my whole life. I love finding stuff and tossing it on the back and I would never part with it now I'm used to it. i still have other bikes that get more luv but the X gets the most use. PS never committed a cargo "stunt" unless that includes taking 6 bags of groceries from the storeReplyDelete
I don't need a cargo bike because I have a car. BUT, as the owner of a 120-year old fixer-upper of a home, if I didn't have a car, a cargo bike would be a must-have. I simple have to haul to much home repair/improvement stuff not to have either a car or a cargo bike.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 13, 2012 at 1:40 PM
I'd certainly rent one for those occasional times when it's needed -- or a trailer -- since I no longer have a car, yet have projects around the house which require lumber or large bags of 'stuff'....Hmm...perhaps I should buy one and make it available for rent :)ReplyDelete
About borrowing the neighborhood children, just be sure to bring them back. You could get a lot of bad pub if you dont.ReplyDelete
I doubt that a cargo bike could ever replace the versatility of a set up utility bike and cargo trailer.ReplyDeleteReplies
It probably can't, but it still has its place. Even if you don't do the ridiculous feats of cargo that the longtail community is fond of it's still nice to have just a bike that you can use to do shopping for a family with and still ride a century on (sometimes with groceries -- I've taken the scenic route back from the donut shop a few times with a couple of dozen donuts in tow, and after 75 miles of transit the surviving donuts were none the worse for wear.)Delete
Think of a longtail as a light pickup truck. Fast, maneuverable, can carry more load than a sedan, but you're not going to use it for moving house unless you can't afford to hire a cargo van from U-haul.
I guess cargo bikes are like padded shorts, if you need them, you know it.ReplyDelete
The realization came to me the day I tied grocery bags to my kids and told them to hold on tight.
I have not gotten my cargo bike yet, I am waiting for Xtracycle EdgeRunner to arrive at LBS in the spring.
It's my main ride. I have a Dutch Delivery bike (short wheelbase, front rear/racks). It's easy to carry stuff (my computer to work) and has lights fenders and a chainguard, so it's just "easier" to take every day. It's a little slower than other bikes (11mph average) but that's OK, I spend less time changing flats due to the big kevlar belted tires. It's also nice not to have any excuses when you need to pick up some milk at the store on the way home. I couldn't do that on my other folding bike.ReplyDelete
I have a Yuba Mundo that I can't imagine not riding all the time. Part of the appeal is that I bought it used on craigslist and it was pretty tricked out with fenders, dynamo hub, front/rear BM lights, fat frank tires, chainguard. All that stuff makes for an easy bike to ride. Slow because it is so heavy, but easy bc it is highly visible, super dependable, and like GRJ I never fail to have room for extra cargo. the long wheel base combined with those tires (and the velocity rims!) makes for a super sweet ride. It takes a bit of effort to get it up to speed, but once there it rides really sweet. So I guess I'd split the appeal 50/50 between its ability to carry just about anything (I've hauled 300lbs of gravel in rubbermaid containers strapped to the side) and the sweetness of the ride (which is a combo of ride-quality and ease of use due to the dynamo lights etc...).ReplyDelete
Wanted to through out some big cargo bike LOVE. I rode an Xtracyle attached to lower end Raleigh mountain bike frame for 2 years. I heavily customized the bike including adding a nuvinci hub. I carried my two kids everywhere, including the backpacks, library books, groceries for a family of four, my guitar etc., etc...I LOVED that bike, it was rock solid. But my kids got bigger and bigger and are riding there own bikes. I got divorced and instead of shopping for four I was mostly shopping for one. Eventually I noticed that I just wasn't using the bikes capacity all that often. Not being the type who like to have alot of stuff, I sold the bike and replaced it with a Brompton. I love my Brompton too, and it carries a surprisingly large amount of stuff well, but the Xtracycle will always have a special place in my heart. It aloud me to do so much and live without a car.ReplyDelete
- heatherNovember 13, 2012 at 8:40 PM
I know of someone who has an extra cycle bike as her only bike. My husband had kids and no car for years, but hauled them all in the trailer, one was willing to ride a trailer bike, but all refused to learn how to ride bikes,and went off to live with mom with car. We sometimes think about having a trailer to haul heavy stuff, but have never needed it. We've been able to carry pretty much everything with panniers on commuting or touring bikes from bags of potting soil, plants, bamboo poles, bike frames, wheels, tires, big pumpkins, 25lb bags of rice, giant bags of cat foot, cat litter,recycling, regular grocery orders, wetsuits, etc.. The only things that I know would not fit, would probably not work on a cargo bike either, so that is what the bus is for. Oh and I live in the country to, so my rides are fairly long.ReplyDelete
I don't have one. Yet.ReplyDelete
However, I am very intrigued by the mid-tail bikes (something like the Kona Minute, for example) which are much longer and much more over built than a mountain bike commuter, but not as large and hard to store inside as a full on long tail cargo bike. Space is limited (five bikes, plus a recumbent and the kid's growing bike collection and counting in the basement - thank goodness for the walkout!!)
Would I use it? Yes absolutely. It would become my main around town bicycle in a heartbeat. My mtn bike commuter would become my dedicated winter bike.
Very interesting read all - your comments, as well as the original article, reflect a lot of what I am and have been thinking. Do I need a cargo bike? No. Would I love a cargo bike and use it all the time just because it is cool? In a heartbeat.
Oh, and it would also get used for, well, cargo...
I build flatbed trailer from a kid hauler trailer to haul cargo. Wheels come off and it folds flat. That's prettty handy for taking on a bus. Don't think most of the cargo bikes can be put on a LA Metro bus rack. Certainly expands the range I can go to get things. The trailer on a commuter is faster than a cargo bike too. Distances are pretty long here in LA, so 40 miles round trip crosstown is pretty common.ReplyDelete
The next improvement from flatbed is to make tray cargo modules, but that may be very simple to do in the form of milk crates or the bigger rubbermaid plastic boxes. Portable grill? Cooler? Surfboard rack? Mulch hauler??
The trailer is much more practical than a cargo bike. It stores easily and there's one less large bike in my bike garage. And there's a vast cost difference. Not to forget the pleasure of making your own custom bike accessory.Replies
You use trailers differently; I've owned three kid trailers (one with a seat hitch, and two at-axle hitches), and two long tails (xtracycle and big dummy). I ended up liking longtails better, though I have wondered whether it would be worth owning a trailer for some really obnoxious loads.Delete
The main advantage of the trailer is that if you don't need it, you don't drag it. The main advantage of the longtail is that you've always got it. I am pretty sure that this is why you find the longtail fans being (largely) people who say "I ride it all the time" -- the whole point is that you don't have to plan whether this is a trailer trip/day, or not, you just go. Other people are okay with all that planning, and for them a trailer makes much more sense.
You put a longtail bike on a bus by removing its front wheel and stuffing its forks forward where that wheel would normally go. The wheel goes in your sideloader. (I have never done this, but I have seen videos. Since the bus only has room for two bikes, I cannot depend on it, so I don't.) I think this is a minor pain, but no worse than folding a trailer (I've folded trailers). Trailer or bike, this assumes that you can carry your cargo with you on the bus, which for some of my loads (four 8' 4x4s, or 3 bags of mulch) would be darn difficult.
By-the-way, if you have never used bike X, it is a good plan to ask "can X do Y" or "how do I do Y with X" rather than assert "X cannot do Y" or "I doubt X can do Y". Seriously, just ask. I may have made this mistake myself, but I try not to. Think of all the uninformed "bikes cannot do Y" claims you've seen from people who've never seriously tried a bike, and how annoying that is.
In the Netherlands and Denmark that have by far the largest numbers of cargo bikes per capita most are family vehicles. A few are ridden by folks without kids and small businesses (photographers, handymen, gardeners, caterers etc). But I'd guess that 75% of the larger cargo bikes Workcycles sells are primarily ridden with young children and all the stuff associated with them.ReplyDelete
Our 2-wheeled bakfiets and Fr8 live outside and are both ridden daily, for the school run, for shopping, to go camping or to the beach/park/playground/playdate/picnic, to carry my track bike to and from the velodrome, and of course to go to work in between the other stuff.
Having ridden that bakfiets for four years now (since a month after our first child was born) I seriously cannot imagine how a young family could do without one here. Well of course I can but it sure would make a lot of things harder and less fun.
I've often thought it would be great to have a cargo bike with a good set of lights for getting to and from local music gigs. I have a commuter bike with a front rack that easily accommodates my mandolin case when I ride to band practice, but for solo shows I have to bring bulkier gear especially for Celtic music shows where I'm playing the harp (it's a small one, but still both bulky and relatively delicate).ReplyDelete
I've rigged up an old kid trailer into a flatbed and used that for a few shows but it seems like a cargo bike would be more elegant.
One of my dreams is to organize a Northeast tour where I can travel by bike from gig to gig, after reading about Ben Sollee's success, I think a cargo bike would make it very possible.
I've always thought that the perfect job for a cargo bike would be as a loaded touring or expedition bike. I'm waiting for someone to bring out a cargo touring bike, with relaxed geometry, drop bars, cantilever or disk brakes, a front rack, and the usual slew of brazons.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 14, 2012 at 6:25 PM
I know a few Bullitt owners who ride only that one bike. It's an extremely fast cargo bike.ReplyDelete
In 2007 I added an Xtracycle Freeradical conversion to a 1988 Specialized Rockhopper I'd previously used as a winter beater. With mostly new components and a fresh powder coat it was like a new bike.ReplyDelete
I built it so I could do most of our household grocery shopping and pick up our weekly farm share during the summer months. I had tried to do all the errands on a couple of different bikes, but was always frustrated with the handling of a loaded down bicycle. Its never been a problem since getting the Xtracycle. Awkward loads are no longer an issue. It's my errand bike. I ride it when I know I'll be shopping or need to carry a load. I ride it 1-3 times a week. I also make numerous trips to the local home center during the gardening season.
We have one car in the household. Without the Xtracycle I think there would have been many times I would have jumped in the car to run an errand rather than take a bike. Now I almost never drive the car. Maybe once a month, twice during the winter months.
My Christiania is actually my go-to bike -- I ride it far more than my other bikes (Pilen and Bella Ciao). It's partially because I have kids, but beyond that, when I'm out and about I like the ability to stop and grab things that I need (or spot on the side of the road) but hadn't necessarily planned to procure when I left the house.ReplyDelete
Yesterday, for instance, it was three huge stumps that a tree company had just cut and I now plan to use for garden seats. Totally random, but a great find and would have been an impossibility on any other bike.
In a roundabout way, what I'm saying is that if you aren't that organized, cargo bikes are great. They allow for flexibility and convenience for people that don't always plan ahead.
I've been looking forward to your review of the Xtracycle Radish and am pleased to find that you also liked it. I'm a middle-aged Mom of 5. Not surprisingly, my main mode of transportation is a mini-van. I'm new-again to cycling and bought two new bikes last spring; a Radish and a Giant Escape "0". I'm pretty sure I have the only Radish in my small, western Kentucky city and maybe the only one in the Commonwealth. If forced to choose between keeping one or the other, I'd pick the Radish every time. It makes combining errands and exercise so easy and so fun. I just got in from an eleven mile round trip to the grocery. It's a brisk, sunny day here and I think I smiled the whole time.ReplyDelete
Does everyone "need" a long-tail? I'd like to think about that question this time next year when I'll know if mine is/was a novelty or the real deal. Right now, I do think there is great potential for such bikes for many of the able-bodied among us. My husband and I are trying to figure out how we might effectively incorporate Xtracycle conversions into our Church's benevolence ministry.
We use our bakfiest to commute to school and twice a week to music school. Our music school run is three kids, two cellos, one guitar. It works well though the instruments need a good tuning in the winter when we get to class.
If carrying greater than one child I would skip the Radish and have more carrying capacity. OVer time children have plenty of stuff and the more capacity you have the easier it is to stay on the two wheels.
We carried our guys pretty much in every permutation of kids on bikes, seat on back seat on back plus handlebar etc. Bobike makes seats to carry children from the handlebar seat - 6-12 months on up to an elementary school child. Mixing those seats can work well if you don't wan to get a cargo option. I wish our cities had enough quality infrastructure for children to be out on their own bikes but right now in Chicago for us it needs to be a mix of kid carrying bike and them on their own rides to stay on two wheels.
I do wish we had a IT chair for our Brompton....
I ride an xtracycle (added to a donor bike) everyday. My favorite part of the bike is that it rides/feels like a "normal" bike. I haul a 1st grader to school every day (5ish miles each way) and I use the x to grocery shop, haul my guitar, etc. but the x is always ready to be a normal bike and/or a cargo bike as the situation demands. I have tried trailers too, and I hate dealing with wide turns, extra locking cables, and extra width. When people ask me if I "need" a cargo bike everyday, I ask them if they "need" the trunk in their car? Would you want to have to remember to put it on every time you were going to haul anything? I love my x and only ride my other bikes when I have a specific reason to.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 26, 2012 at 4:35 PM
As someone that's been riding a Yuba Mundo for about 3000 miles / year for the past three years, I can say that having a cargo bike is neither frivolous or just some hot new fad.ReplyDelete
I've hauled lumber, groceries, drunk friends, kids, furniture on all kinds of terrain over all kinds of distance with it, and I love it.
The funny thing is, now I'm looking for a smaller, lighter bike because my commute is essentially 10 miles downhill one way and 10 home uphill. While I can do it on my Mundo, there's plenty of gears, I'm looking for a little more speed. The problem is, I can't find a bike I want, because I'll be limited by what I can take. If I take layers for work and my computer, I can only get one bag of groceries on the way home. I'm considering getting a Yuba Boda Boda (it's a midtail) and adding an internal triple to the front.Replies
- AnonymousDecember 24, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Think about the possibility of e-assist on the cargobike. Geared e-assist hub has plenty of torque uphills. Steep hills made it really challenging for me and my son to ride either the Xtracycle or our BikeFriday Tandem on a daily basis. The e-assist made it possible to ride the steep hills on our way to his school.Delete


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The Six Dollar Fifty Man: The World Gets a New Hero
The Six Dollar Fifty Man is an inspiring short film directed by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, produced at New Zealand's Sticky Pictures for NZ Shorts. The award-winning short film premiered with Special Distinction in Cannes 2009, received the Jury Prize for Filmmaking at Sundance 2010 and was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2011 Academy Awards.
The Six Dollar Fifty Man tells the story of eight-year-old Andy, who is forced to cope with daily struggles against bullying and abuse at a suppressive elementary school in rural New Zealand. The gutsy little boy has created a fantasied superhero world, in which his wild imagination allows him to perform extraordinary physical feats to withstand pain, scale buildings and leap from tall rooftops to deal with the school bullies and his constantly disparaging teacher. However, when Andy gets into trouble with the headmaster, he realizes that in order to save himself and his only friend, he must find the courage to confront his problems in the real world.
The Six Dollar Fifty Man: The World Gets a New Hero
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Does anyone actually tune favourite channels?
(Just so you know.)
Remember how flatscreen TVs used to look: dominated by huge side- or bottom-mounted speakers and with large silver or grey bezel frames? The latest models are positively anorexic in comparison, shaving centimetres off every dimension except the display itself. Sony Bravia KDL-46Z5500 Sony's Bravia KDL-46Z5500: handsome So …
I know that people have beef with Sony, but if there's one thing they really do excell in, it's TVs.
The styling is very discreet. I would prefer it to have no speakers - frankly, this thing is going to be hooked up to a Home Theatre system anyway, so no real need. You don't spank £1800 on a TV without a decent soundsystem, do you?
And Sony's remotes are always clear and well laid out. It amazes me everytime I look at alternate brands how cluttered and poorly thought-through their remotes are.
Now, just one thing about that power switch. What's the MTBF of that thing physically breaking? My lovely Mum now insists on unplugging her set every night, as the last two TVs she had with physical power switches broke because the switch stopped working.
An off switch doesn't make this eco-friendly - unless it's soldered to be permanently off (and then it's just a waste of manufacturing resources).
No-one really NEEDS a 46" TV. OK, this one is quite efficient (compared to some) but it's still sucking up 166W when it's on. What's wrong with a 26" TV - and sitting a bit closer to the screen!
Read product specifications properly before writing an article and watch product prices. The Bravia X series is the most expensive and feature rich series of the Bravia HDTVs that Sony produces. The Z series is an in-between W and X series, adding some of the X series features to the W series practically.
The Z series is cheaper than the X series but more expensive than the W series. The Z series was recently introduced, in fact before there were in order of increasing price/features just: S D V W X while now there are S D V W Z X (but I might be missing some other new letters although there is nothing above X so far).
Yes the Z comes after the X in the alphabet but if you just check the price premium that the X got over the Z and how many more features it gets ... it's quite obvious to understand that Z doesn't come after X in Sony world...
Regarding those having troubles with dead PSU on the HDTVs .. go out and buy a good UPS .. the APC UPS ones are best protection you can get. Those will save your equipment from getting broken by surge spikes that happen everyday everywhere in the world.
Government metrics mean having an on-off switch makes the set look more eco friendly. Some STBs don't have an on-off switch and new models do to make them look better in this regard.
@Nigel Callaghan : Unless you get a big screen (e.g. 50 inch) and sit quite close you're not going to be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 720 p - at 26" you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between HD and DVD !
The set reviewed doesn't have Freesat. If I got a set this big, I'd want Freesat (I don't want to give any money to Murdoch).
A little advise to the wise. I'd avoid Sony LCDs if I where you. There was a time when all Sony stuff was made in Japan, and the screens where brilliant, now its made in China and mostly assembled in Eastern Europe. The quality of the electronics and build has decreased dramatically over the years. You might expect the screen to fail after no more than 2 years. My top of the range 32" screen failed after 22 months. You really do expect a high price TV to last about 5-6 years. Besides these days what is the point of having an enormous screen when the content is shite?
@AC 15:44 - "You really do expect a high price TV to last about 5-6 years."
Blimey, you have lousy expectations. If I spent £1800 on a TV, I'd expect it to last a lot longer than that - and frankly, I'd hope to be replacing it because I wanted to, not because it was no longer any good.
As for this one - I cannot convince myself that a 46" TV for £1800 is going to be a thousand quid better than one for £800.
Well as to Freesat, no problem with it not built in, I have a hard disc PVR for Freesat (Humax HDR), as to life span I was given a 5 year warrantee for free with a W4500 last year.
26" - that is a portable, a whole family can't huddle around one, as to multiplayer Motorstorm well no hope
My idea is that all TVs and set-top boxes should come preprogrammed with *all* channels preprogrammed as "Favorites". These favorite registers would be preprogrammed in accordance with, ah, the actual channel number they contain.
So if, for example, you wanted to watch your favorite channel which is channel number 873, you would press "Fav." and then type in the digits 8, 7, and 3 and press enter to select Favorite register number 873 which contains channel number 873. See?
Oh... Sorry. Never mind.
as always, you forget the fact people WANT (even if they didnt know it at the time) DLNA PC to HDTV stremaing capabilitys....
incase you didnt know thats a PC with a copy of 'PS3 Media server' on it, so doest This set work with that DLNA server as other models do?
or are we to assume you didnt even try it with any HD video streaming, as it happens PS3MS is the only only one that does work reasonably well on other sets so try it here to.
OC DLNA isnt as good as a Real Ethernet A/V/data server and client inside the TV but that seems beyond the executives to authorise on big brands today, but at least DLNA capabilitys allow you to stream 1080P high profile AVC/H.264 mkv/mp4 etc from your LAN to your expensive HDTV with PS3MS.
"The Ethernet cable socket on the side allows you to watch TV and use web-based applications simultaneously. These are limited to items like an RSS feed, calculator and calendar. To our mind, if you have a great-quality, large-sized screen like this you should be looking at Blu-rays - the Z5500 does 24p cinema input - HD broadcasts or even Freeview in as much glory as possible, not zoning part of it out to make room for other features. Especially when sharp, detailed imagery is where this panel excels."
@"By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 4th November 2009 15:26 GMT @Nigel Callaghan : Unless you get a big screen (e.g. 50 inch) and sit quite close you're not going to be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 720 p - at 26" you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between HD and DVD ! " --- You are absolutely wrong. There is a huge difference in quality between 720p and 1080p on 40" or bigger displays. Actually even on smaller ones it's possible to tell the difference.
The best HD experience is achieved with a 90" or 100" either HD 1080p projector and a proper 1.2 or 1.3 gain quality screen or with LCD/Plasma of the same size.
At that size the viewer can get a lot more spatio-temporal details in his/her eyes cones/rods...
this is probably, along with reading the above thread, is your best option for testing as it has fixes for the currently reported HDTV conf problems etc
"Latest builds [2009-10-23] / Current revision: 366
Windows: http://ps3mediaserver.org/files/pms-set ... 11.366.exe
Linux: http://ps3mediaserver.org/files/pms-linux-1.11.366.tgz
changelog between r366 and r363:
- Some changes on Sony, Philips renderer support
- Fix bug with subtitles search on large dir browsing
changelog between r363 and r356:
- Ability to choose the subtitles color
- Audio transcoding to 48kHz by default on PS3 (new renderer parameter 'TranscodeAudioTo441kHz', feel free to tweak it)
- Support of HTTP chunk encoding (from the client side)
- Regional profiles support for Bravia TVs
- New renderer parameter (see 'TranscodedVideoFileSize', for Samsung/Philips TVs maybe)
- iTunes library support on Windows
</The best HD experience is achieved with a 90" or 100" either HD 1080p projector and a proper 1.2 or 1.3 gain quality screen or with LCD/Plasma of the same size./>
The important point is the area the picture hits on the back of the retina. So a bigger display is needed to view for further away. There is a comfort issue as well - for relaxed viewing not too many folks like to be hunched up over a small screen and it's more difficult with >1 viewer. So big screens work well. They're even impressive when switched off :)
</At that size the viewer can get a lot more spatio-temporal details in his/her eyes cones/rods.../>
Well the HVS folks know that the eye can resolve up to around 4000 luminance pixels for fully immersive viewing (i.e. the photons from the display engage the whole retina). So 1920*1080 is only a quarter of the pixels needed.
Super HD (from NHK) and D-Cinema now offer 4K*2K pixels for this reason.
Actually Sony and Samsung make the best TVs on the market hands down. The others are close but at the moment these two manufacturers stand well above the rest.
If I had the choice between a 60hz Samsung or Sony and a 120hz or better from someone else, I'd get the 60hz.
The biggest myth is that 120hz TVs or the newer 240hz TVs make movies appear fake, especially if they have a lot of computer generated special effects. The frequency rarely has anything to do with this, it's often some other optional feature that can be turned off. The other issue is build quality of course and lesser models will have poor implementations of every technology, whether it's the resolution or frequency.
The real test of a TV manufacturer is how good their large model TVs look, maintaining accuracy in colour and black levels at 46 inches and above.
Sitting closer to a small screen? No thanks, that's a bad idea. The dust and other irritants that congregate close to the screen or its glossy surrounds affects your eyesight and may even damage your eyes. I doubt radiation is a factor, but I'd rather not find out the hard way.
As for cleanliness, LED LCD TVs use 40% less energy than their LCD equivalents and are mercury free. I don't know where that 166W number comes from, but that's massively more than either of my TVs use, one being a 40" Sony Bravia the other a 46" Samsung LED LCD TV.
Perhaps you are confusing them with Plasma, but even those are more efficient than they were even a year ago.
The general rule of thumb is the TV should be just over half the size of the distance you sit from it to get a cinema-like experience. If you sit 6 feet away then a 40 inch TV will do the job. 7 or 8 feet and you would get a better experience from a 46 or 50 inch TV. More than that and you're better off going to the movies because projectors are shit and TVs over 50 inches rarely have the same quality of picture as their smaller brethren. A 72" 1080p 120hz TV is hardly the most affordable purchase and usually a waste of money if you're looking for quality over quantity.
"Even if it can't count LED backlighting among its image boosters"
I have to pick this summary as spectacularly misleading. LED backlighting (at least for the edge LEDs as on almost all Samsung TVs) has at best a neutral and in most cases a negative effect on picture quality.
Only when there is the capability to support either local dimming or black frame or line insertion is there any picture quality benefit. The slim LED TV's actually suffer in picture quality with relatively poor contrast in any real picture and the colour is somewhat off on many Samsung LEDs to keep the perceived brightness up while keeping the power down.
To the person wanting Freesat check out the Z5800 which is similar but with the satellite tuner and Freesat support.
If energy consumption is your highest priority the WE5 uses Hot Cathode florescent backlight to achieve a consumption little over 100W even for the 46" although that is only 100Hz.
To the person concerned about reliability Sony TVs have a 3 year guarantee and some stores offer even longer.
"f I had the choice between a 60hz Samsung or Sony and a 120hz or better from someone else, I'd get the 60hz."
thats because you live in the US or some other place that uses those oddball freq and have to use fractions of the whole No. for your old TVs and continue that through to your sibstandard digital TV offerings that dont work anywere near as good as generic DVB and its ghosting rejection, wereas the UK uses generic PAL 25,50,100, and now 200 as per the reviewed HDTV.
remember now, this review is about a real freq not some oddball rounded up US freq derived from your old US fractions or your oddball US DVB standard.
No, the execs have not forgotten about DNLA, you can be sure.
First, by not including DNLA, people who want it will have to spend more money on another box, hopefully, from the exec's perspective, from the same company that made the telly.
Second, they will introduce a new range of models in 18 months time... with DNLA built in... thus prompting a round of upgrading from those who couldn't wait this time around and won't wait for their telly to EOL.
Personally I work hard to avoid the whole 'upgrade! upgrade!' cycle unless I can sell on my existing kit for enough money that the upgrade becomes cheap. Still running an iPhone 3G, I'm going to wait until next summer and then go shopping for a new contract.
Black helicopters 'cos, well, I've just let the cat out of the bag... Sony will be coming for me...
Hz myth? It looks like you've fallen for the Hz myth.
You've said off your own back that a 50Hz refresh "looks flickery" on a TV which suggests in the same sentence that the eye can detect more than 50Hz, it has to be able to for 50Hz to appear flickery in the first instance.
The human eye starts to interpret meaningful "fluid motion" of a sequence of frames at about 25/30 fps with clarity, but the human eye is certainly not limited to 50 frames per second (50 Hz refresh in this case), that is the wide spread ill conceived myth born from the fact the film industry set minimum fps limits on their motion pictures.
It really depends what you're looking at but remember the input to your eyes is a constant stream of light being translated into images sent to the brain. A good explanation of differening stimulus situations can be found here:
but be under no illusion at all, that the eye can differentiate light from dark quite easily at 200 fps, the article even recommends 500fps to capture all sensitive information about anything that flicker, blinks or moves. The most important fact is being able to understand and make detailed sense of what you're looking, which is why lower fps are more suitable for detailed streams.
If you can't notice a difference between 50fps and 100 fps in a game of Quake, you're either kidding yourself of you've got very poor eyes indeed. You might not interpret the difference as a lack of flicker, but you should certainly notice the smoothness of the motion increase. End of the day 200 Hz Tv's are highly beneficial over 50 or 100Hz, end of.
"Actually Sony and Samsung make the best TVs on the market hands down"
Funny, I heard Panasonic make a pretty good set and you can still get Pioneer plasmas which pretty much shit on all else.
Samsung however make shit TVs but they're the best in that lower price bracket where most seem to buy - better than LG anyhow. Read the above regarding LED edge lighting for current models. Also some of the worst scrolling text handling and upsizing I have ever seen came courtesy of Samsung. Think: person standing near edge of scene with one shoulder hideously larger than the other. Utter crap.
For sheer consistency of top end performance I'll grant you Sony.
Hmmm, looking at two TVs in a home cinema specialists side-by-side with one 100Hz and the other 200Hz both playing a variety of sequences (fast action movie, sport etc) there's nothing really to note. Me thinks either the difference is only noticeable on shitty TVs or this is the latest marketing ploy in a recession to sell more boxes.
As for the quoted website - well it must be true if that says so! As someone already stated, the 50Hz to 100Hz made a real difference on a CRT with a scanning electron beam. 100 to 200 on an LCD? Hmmm, sell me some more horseshit the roses are coming along great.
I saw an excellent demonstration of frame rates and picture quality last year, done by BBC R&D. Also saw the NHK Super High Vision demonstration at IBC 08 in Amsterdam.
My vote goes to whoever does 1080p at 300Hz on a 46" screen, for a whole lot of reasons. 4K and upwards will come eventually, but let's have a global 300Hz standard first.
For now, I've got the 40" Z series and it's still stunning. Even in the shop you could look along their display and the Z series stands head and shoulders above the others the way a Trinitron did thirty years ago.
"Instead, the hero feature is 200Hz MotionFlow frame interpolation, designed to offer smoother results with fast-moving subjects like sport, for instance, by adding in extra, computer-generated frames of video."
First feature to turn off then. Does anyone really have a problem in the cinema where you get 24 frames a second refreshed at a 48 frame rate? Not really. It looks and feels natural.
The latest and greatest spanking CGI cartoon flick may look even more spanking with processing like this, but I wouldn't want a classic Hitchcock enhanced with CG frames and processing to make it look like a modern HD documentary on TV instead of a classic VistaVision film!
@whitespacephil "I know that people have beef with Sony, but if there's one thing they really do excell in, it's TVs."
They used to. Quality in Sony has gone downhill a lot. Last 3 Sony products I've owned have all been crap (including a TV).
The panels are the best bit and they're made by Samsung anyway.
Could someone tell me whether LCD's have finally reached the easeof-viewingness of CRT's yet? You know, without the weird blocks of iffy colours or the banding of graduated fades?
And if we really want to be green, we'll be dirty. How many TV's on standbywould a shower, let alone a bath power?
"You know, without the weird blocks of iffy colours or the banding of graduated fades?"
OC NOT, that would involve the UK and OFCOM actually giving the recently released Analogue BBC2 freq and more, actually BACK to the DVB-T(2) digital system, so we can have far Higher bitrates per digital channel and more channels for that matter than we are expected to use now and in the near/midium/longer future....
the EU have stop to some of their sales of several TV freqs and reallocating them back into their DVB HD use apparently...and are doing that today.
but we cant have the UK MP doing such innovative thinking, when theres money involved selling it all off to the global corporations, so we become rent boys like old maxwell and his rented sat feeds, never again actually owning our own property as we wont be able to buy it back later when they finally realise they REALLY NEED IT...
that property being the UK airwaves each and every one of us inthe UK own, in this case....
with more and more devices coming with HDMI it's obvious that Sony are expecting this to be obsolete by Jan 2010. Any forward thinking manu would put at least 4 on there,
AND at 47" why aren't we seeing any 1440p displays, we know SuperHD (? - which is still just HD) has been the subject of many tech blather for over a year, or do we have to wait for "SuperHD ready"
200hz is a nice touch but how long have we been waiting for that (does anyone remember when the first 100hz TV's came out?)
No speakers is a good idea, i've yet to see any LCD monitor or TV that has truly decent audio, but the lack of a spdif (5.1) again shows that it's already out of date.
it's a Sony so it's overpriced from the get go
this is just another example of a non inovative sell of old tech, this was out of date as it was designed. FAIL FAIL FAIL !!
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2020


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where did you get your FNC?
Or buy an inch selector and be able to reach it without changing your grip. I wasn't worried about model accuracy so I substituted the folding cocking handle, selector and mag release for inch items as they all seem to be more ergonomic.Originally Posted by aw_frankie
Gunco member #11
it is dangerous to be right in matters about which the established authorities are wrong Voltaire
I got it about 3 years ago (preban) from a local purchase. I'm planning to get a FA sear and get it converted ASAP.Originally Posted by John Caven
Better order early if you want a coonan, my last one took 9 weeks!Originally Posted by hcpookie
Thanks for that heads-up, I probably will. Everyone seems to agree the Coonan receivers are good quality.
There's a potential GB on para conversion parts on falfiles, but they don't have anything to order yet so we shall see.
In no hurry, I've got a lot of machine work to do to it first
I have been on the backorder list for Coonans since mid November...
Refinishing and Builds
AK and variants
Affordable prices/Licensed Gunsmith
4 to 6 week turnaround-Send an email for a price quote today and
check out our website-
You too?Originally Posted by SalBO
There's some uneasy threads on FalFiles discussing what's up between FAC and DCI. RUMINT is FAC was bought out by someone else. The "gunsnstuff" website has been down for the past 2 weeks and their forum box on FalFiles has been locked. Sounds like $$ woes for FAC.
I called FAC today and the lady on the phone said to expect 8-10 weeks for Coonans. That's what they told me last Nov.
UPDATE - my 2 Rhodie FAL kits arrived from
$170 each... these are the "B" grade kits they had.
They have VERY GOOD BARRELS! Let me say again - the barrels were scrubbed by someone before mailing, and they are nice and shiny, and no pitting/gouging/etc. I would rate the bores as VERY GOOD to EXCELLENT.
That said, it took them 2 weeks to get it to me and required a signature Fortunately I was home early enough yesterday to make it happen.
The overall condition of the kits is incredibly nice - I'd say VERY GOOD, not counting the finish. GOOD, counting the finish. THESE ARE RHODY FALS so they are all painted with the "baby vomit" colors. The stock seems a bit longer than my friend's STG stock, but can't verify.
The FCG parts are very solid - not loose at all. In fact, they are reasonably tight and feel like they were barely used. The only problems are surface wear and some minor pitting on the outside surfaces. There is a bit of rust on the inside of the top cover, but nothing painful.
I think these are only one notch below the STG kits. Assuming you will refinish, I rate these as VERY GOOD, considering only the mechanics and bore condition. The finish on the outside knocks these down a notch, so if you plan to use original furniture, keep that in mind.
Now to pick up some "needs work" folder stocks from SARCO.
If you want a good quality FAL kit with "intact" barrels, I would strongly recommend these kits! I am fairly certain that all Rhody kits are about the same in condition, except not all places have scrubbed the bores before shipping... dunno on that one.
Hey Pookie, If you need the cutter and guide to do the cutout for the top cover
I'd be more than happy to loan you mine.
I have one too if you need it.......Originally Posted by RLB
Refinishing and Builds
AK and variants
Affordable prices/Licensed Gunsmith
4 to 6 week turnaround-Send an email for a price quote today and
check out our website-


text:
Check out some photos which we've taken recently with pinhole cameras made from things such as pineapple cans and drink cans! Watch out for more photos soon.
- TOG is a hackerspace based in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. It is a shared space where members have a place to be creative and work on their projects in an environment that is both inspiring and supportive of both new and old technologies. Join our mailing list.
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Forum Post: A Case for Capitalism
Posted 6 years ago on March 22, 2014, 10:31 p.m. EST by friedmanmises
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I personally do not agree with you. Maybe I'm wrong, but I need to know what key points I'm missing.
In capitalism, one person's decision cannot affect another person unless the affected person agreed to it (ideally). Yet you blame the rich "1%" for your problems. In socialism, which is what many occupiers seem to want, they actually could cause you problems, because they could exaggerate their need or choose to produce less, which would lead to wealth being redistributed from you to them. In capitalism, only your decisions affect you. For example, if you are in debt to a bank, it is not the bank's fault, but yours because you agreed to it. If someone is richer than you, they did not take money from you.
At any time in capitalism, you can choose to try to make people's lives better. You can start a business, create jobs, and sell a product. It's called free trade. You gain money from the people who buy your product, they gain your product (a mutually beneficial trade). You gain help in making the product from your employees, your employees gain a salary. Everybody wins. All actions are voluntary. If a trade is unfair to one person, he/she won't agree to it. This ensures all trades are fair. Whoever helps society the most is paid the most.
it's a system that encourages these kinds of trades, and rewards good decisions. In socialism, regardless of your good (or bad) decisions, you are given the same salary or wealth. This is unfair by itself. Along with that, it encourages bad decisions and punishes good ones, leading to a society were every one makes bad choices and doesn't contribute, except for a few hard-working people who are not enough. I think capitalism is better, because it rewards hard work and good decisions, and other people can't affect you. If I make a bad product in capitalism, no one buys it, and only I pay the consequences. If I make a good product, I will be rewarded, and the people who buy it will be, too. In socialism, if I make a bad product, the person who made a good product will have their earnings transferred to me. I will not learn from my mistake, nor will he be rewarded for his success. Capitalism would give him a reason to continue helping other people and me a reason to make a better product.
America, although now moving away from capitalism, has been the most successful nation in the world. Although there is not necessarily equality in the nation, it is not fair to say that the poor have been hurt. What the poor live with today is far better than what even the rich lived with before capitalism.
Think about it. Was Steve Jobs greedy? Was Henry Ford greedy? If yes, than their greed has helped society. If no, than their selflessness has been rewarded by society. This is why I love capitalism.
Even if you feel socialism is better, I think you should keep capitalism in America, so people like me can enjoy it, and move to one of the many countries where socialism has been implemented. I don't think it's fair to force your ideas on others.
Do you agree with everything I've said in this post? Please let me know, why or why not?


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The joint initiation of the earth-reality and the Heaven-realityOne day a middle-aged man and his wife went to Gambhirananda and asked to be initiated. The Master said, "Not today, but in a few months' time I shall initiate you."
It happened that the wife was attacked by a severe illness very shortly afterwards and died. The man was very sad, but he still wanted to become a real disciple of Gambhirananda. So he went to the Master and again asked to be initiated. The Master agreed, and set the date.
At the time of initiation, the man begged Gambhirananda to initiate his deceased wife as well. The Master said, "How can I do that? She is dead; she is no longer with you."
The man said, "No, her soul is not dead. You promised you would initiate both of us. While initiating me, you can initiate her too. Please do me this favour." He began crying, and finally the Master agreed.
Gambhirananda placed two small cushions side by side. The man sat on one, and the other remained unoccupied. While the Master was initiating the seeker, he placed one of his hands on the seeker and the other in the space above the empty cushion. In a few minutes' time people saw that the cushion was moving, and they felt certain that it was the wife's presence. In this way, Gambhirananda initiated both of them together.
Commentary: The true operation of initiation takes place mostly in the soul and not in the body-consciousness. When the Master initiates a seeker, he immediately helps the seeker remember his soul's promise to the Absolute Supreme before the soul entered into the world-arena. When the Master initiates the physical in a seeker, he purifies the seeker's outer existence by touching the seeker's physical-reality. When he initiates the spiritual in the seeker, he pours a stream of illumining light into the seeker's system. Physical initiation reminds us of our spiritual duty. Spiritual initiation reminds us of the immortality of our consciousness-light.


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Notice: On April 23, 2014, Statalist moved from an email list to a forum, based at statalist.org.
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Re: st: control a variable in stata
Nick Cox <firstname.lastname@example.com>
"firstname.lastname@example.com" <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Re: st: control a variable in stata
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:54:23 +0100
The research question is explaining salaries. That being so you would be better off with -poisson- or -glm, link(log).
OLS is an estimation method, not a model.
On 21 Apr 2012, at 13:33, "Kong, Chun" <email@example.com> wrote:
Dear Nora,
Thank you very much for your advice!! I really appreciate for your
time and help :)
I am going to add a race and age variable and see how they affect on
player's salary. I have look through the paper you have suggested
and other studies with the related topic and they gave me many great
Regarding the choice of model, do you mean that OLS is the
appropriate and the only model I should if I only have data in 1
Thank you very much for your help again!
Yours sincerely
From: email@example.com [owner-
email@example.com] on behalf of Nora Reich
Sent: 20 April 2012 17:15
To: email@example.com
Subject: Re: st: control a variable in stata
Dear Andy,
first some ideas about your independent variables:
1. You distinguish between players born in the US and players born
outside the US. I would suggest to also control for skin colour (black
or white), either only for those born in the US or for all (depending
on the results of these estimations), because skin colour seems to
affect the salary as well, see, for example, this paper:
http://business.uni.edu/economics/Themes/rehnstrom.pdf (which I found
by simply googling).
2. Another important factor might be the number of years the player
has played in the NBA.
3. Maybe age also plays a role?
Generally, my advice would be to look at papers with a similar
research question and derive your list of independent variables from
the literature review (and, of course, from own ideas). Have you done
a literature review? This is usually a good thing to do before
estimating regressions.
Random effects and fixed effects models are for panel data. If you
have only 1 NBA season, these models are not appropriate. However, if
you have a variable "year" which tells you whether the data is from
2010 or 2011, it would be valuable to include a dummy for one of the
years in your regression.
For the tests for the assumptions of the OLS model, just google
something like "regress postestimation stata".
Best regards
Am 20. April 2012 16:11 schrieb Kong, Chun <email@example.com>:
Dear statalist,
I am working on a paper in finding the determinants of NBA players'
salary. Data are collected from the 2010-2011 NBA season. My
dependent variable is ln(salary). I have got several dummy variables
1) ethnicity (0 if player is born in US, 1 for international player)
3)Season Played in the NBA
3)Efficiency Index
5)Approximate Value Index
6)Versatility Index
7)Points per Field Goal
8)Turnover to assist Ratio
My results turn out that the salary of international player is
higher relative to the players who born in US. However, to make the
comparison fair, I want to test the effect of ethnicity on player's
salary while controlling the performance of both international
players and US players.
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


text:
Gwen Verdon in solo Stage dance performance On the Riviera, 1951
On the Riviera, 1951 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang
Please join Verdon Fosse Legacy Wednesday, January 20, 7pm at the All That Jack (Cole) MOMA film series for a screening of On the Riviera with introduction by Nicole Fosse.
On the Riviera, 1951 starring Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, Corinne Calvet, and Gwen Verdon. 89 min.
Though unbilled in the main credits, Cole protégée Gwen Verdon features prominently in this dance-rich Fox Technicolor movie, as she leads nominal star Danny Kaye on a world-dance tour that includes Cole's signature version of Hindu jazz in "Rhythm of a New Romance." Cole's dark side surfaces in the creepy, pseudo-whimsical "Popo the Puppet." As Busby Berkeley had done 20 years earlier, Cole completely commandeers the mise en scène from the mediocre director of record for an amazing finale, aptly titled "Happy Ending."
Gwen Verdon & Danny Kaye in On the Riviera, 1951
All That Jack (Cole) MOMA Film series
January 20–February 4, 2016
The choreographer Jack Cole (American, 1911–1974) stands Continue reading


text:
Finalist for Best Dressed Galway Races
- 1
- 2
- 3
You can't go wrong with one of Suzie's designs
"Suzie Mahony is an incredible milliner. I wore one of her hats as a judge for Best Dressed Lady at the races at Punchestown. It was a stunning black statement piece and I wore it with a black and wine Bastyn dress. It had such wow factor that VIP magazine did a "Get the Look" feature on it. You can't go wrong with one of Suzie's designs. Supporting an Irish designer from the West of Ireland is just an added bonus!" - Aoibhin Garrihy Actress
Suzie knows what I like & what suits me
I have been a client of Suzie Mahony Designs for almost 7 years..I absolutely love dealing with Suzie as she knows what I like & what suits me. Her creativity, attention to detail, quality & finishing of her hats are exceptional and this is why I go back to her time and time again to make my hats for the various events I attend. Suzie is unbelievable when it comes to looking at an outfit, to help style & complete the look with the variety of colours she has at her studio. Suzie Mahony Designs is a must if you want to have that overall finishing wow look!! - Mandy Maher Catwalk Model Agency
You can feel confident that you are going to be wearing something timeless and chic
"Suzie Mahony is an incredibly creative designer. I have worn Suzie's creations on a number of occasions at my own wedding, to the weddings of friends and family and to the races and have had fantastic comments from people each and every time. Suzie's creations have caught the eye of the judges at Ladies Day on countless occasions. Suzie's hats just add the wow factor to any outfit and never fail to impress. Suzie's approach is very versatile so that each time you can feel confident that you are going to be wearing something timeless and chic. Suzie's own personal approach to the consultation process in ordering a hat is also of significant value to adding the final touches to any outfit" - Sarah Hillas
An amazing designer and wonderful to deal with
"Suzie was just wonderful and so easy to deal with, whatever I asked was not a problem and of course her advice and ideas were just incredible. She is so professional in her work and I would certainly recommend Suzie to any of my friends. To me, Suzie was so professional, an amazing designer and wonderful to deal with."- Customer: Rosaria Higgins
Suzie's skills, professionalism, creativity & in-depth knowledge are second to none
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text:
After tinkering with the Thinkpad 560e for a while and learning some of the eccentricities of it, I swapped the 64Mb memory stick out of it and put that in the Fujitsu Pentium that was otherwise languishing in the closet.
With a total of 80Mb to work with, the playing field changes instantaneously. The only reason I spent a year (and perhaps longer) trying to build Crux installations for this machine and its predecessor is because few distros will run comfortably, even at the command line, on only 16Mb of memory in an i586. Crux worked the best, considering it could run X plus a few console-based applications, well under the 16Mb limit.
Ordinarily Ubuntu and Debian won't even install on 16Mb of memory — the installer program (yes, even the floppy-based installer program) crashes and burns without 32Mb of memory. In fact, neither OS will even boot without 20-30Mb of memory, regardless of how you get the system on there. (It's always possible that different architectures have different memory demands; perhaps a different machine could boot on less.)
On the other hand …
Stepping up over that low memory limit makes it much easier to handle. For the record, that's this machine, plus the added stick of memory, and a fresh console-only installation of Ubuntu 9.10.
Originally I was flustered by the framebuffer issues — the system won't boot to anything but a 640×480 porthole console. I managed to get around that by forcing it to load the uvesafb module in
/etc/modules, and installing v86d, kbd and fbset. From there I could force it to pick the proper screen resolution with
fbset -xres 800 -yres 600, then set the Terminus font with setfont. Your machine might need the same coaxing.
Performance at the framebuffer is acceptable, with strictly console-based programs like you see there. Memory use is around 20-30Mb regularly, with a custom-patched version of screen-vs running (the default Ubuntu version has some eccentricities I don't like) and four or five text-based applications. The processor will spike if any one of them takes over, but usually falls down to cruising load of about 20 percent, according to htop.
I have wireless access through a Linksys WPC11 v3, which is an ancient PCMCIA card that I adore (the hardware otherwise can't handle CardBus connections). I have floppy access, which I alluded to in my last post. Sound is still the big falling down point. It might be something in the way Ubuntu handles sound, or it just might be that the hardware is so old that there's little chance of getting it set up at all. The board is supposedly SoundBlaster 16-compatible, but I've never been able to detect it, let alone get it configured. Ubuntu, Debian, Slitaz and (of course, my mangled) Crux systems all come up empty-handed.
But to be honest, I'm doubting whether sound would be a good idea on this. The 560e running Slitaz was having a frustrating time playing ogg files; I have a feeling 120Mhz would only be worse. It would be nice to have sound but I'm not going to force the issue.
Otherwise, I think that's it. Bumping the machine up to 80Mb makes a world of difference in what you can install and do; if you have a machine treading at 16-24Mb, getting that last little bit of space can seriously change things.


text:
Hi everyone,
I have done the datasource testing with SQL Server 7.0 (Desktop Edition) ,testing was completed sucessfully.
But to MySQL, i think there should have been one driver for Configuration(Administrative Tools---->ODBC---->Add--->Finish)
i have given DataSource name as MySQL ,Server name as localhost, LoginID ---- root and password ---1234.
System gave error message as Connection failed : SQL State : 28000 and the SQL Error :18456,login failed for User :root.
How to begin and complete the entire workflow for testing the datasource with MySQL .


text:
Jerry Gergich, we salute you!
Supermodel Christie Brinkley has signed on to play Jerry's (Jim O'Heir) wife on Parks and Recreation, TVGuide.com has confirmed. (It finally makes sense why his daughter Millicent was so hot!). Entertainment Weekly first reported the news.
Parks and Recreation Exclusive: Megan Mullally returning as Tammy 2!
Brinkley, whose on-screen credits include Vegas Vacation and Jack and Jill, will guest-star in the aptly titled "Ron and Diane" episode, which sees the return of Megan Mullally as Ron Swnason's second ex-wife Tammy.
Parks and Recreation airs Thursdays at 9:30/8:30c on NBC.


text:
A cosy cottage in the South of Sweden
This lovely NOVASOL holiday home is situated just outside of Hässleholm in the region of Skåne (Scania) in southern Sweden. The surroundings of the cottage are filled with nature and possibilities of getting close to wild animals such as deer and moose. The cottage is situated on a natural ground which gives you a more authentic feeling of being close to nature. If you want to go fishing, a boat is included in the rent which can be used in some of the many lakes that is located within narrow range of the cottage. The closest one is reached easliy with just 1,5 km away. In the lakes, you can of course also take a swim during a warm summer day or just relax on the boat while exploring the nature. To this holiday home in Hässleholm, pets are also welcome without any extra charge. In other words a perfect accommodation if you want the WHOLE family to enjoy a wonderful holiday in Sweden. From the holiday cottage, you are not far from many of the more popular attractions in southern Sweden. Take a daytrip to for example Österlen – the beautiful area by the sea with its 'special atmosphere'. Or why not go on moose safari in Västra Torup? You will for sure not be bored when spending your holiday in a cottage in Skåne.


text:
Guides A-Z
Guide describing how to install a capillary break to help manage moisture in foundations.
Guide describing how to create a capillary break at all crawlspace floors using polyethylene sheeting to manage moisture in crawlspaces.
Guide describing how to install a capillary break under a slab foundation using either polyethylene sheeting or rigid insulation installed over aggregate or over sand and geotextile matting.
Guide describing how to apply water management strategies to below grade walls.
Guide describing installation of sump pumps in the basement or crawlspace of a home.
Guide describing how to properly grade a site so water will not saturate the soil, and penetrate into the foundation.
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Vapor retarders can be a crucial part of the building envelope and can help manage moisture issues to keep the home dry. However, before installing a vapor retarder, installers must be aware that in some instances vapor retarders can increase the likelihood of condensation issues.
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A guide for choosing and installing roof anchoring systems for solar panels.
This guide describes procedures for assessing feasibility of solar resources, and designating location of propolsed PV arrays and solar thermal panels.
Guide describing the need for covers on sump pumps in the basement or crawlspace of a home.


text:
A team of four Hope College students participated in the Michigan University Model Arab League Conference that was held on Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 19-21, at Grand Valley State University, with one member of the group earning Outstanding Delegate/Honorable Mention Award recognition.
Sophomore Aftan Snyder of Bigfork, Mont., received the Outstanding Delegate/Honorable Mention Award for her work on the Council on Palestinian Affairs. The award honors a student who exhibited the highest degree of excellence in preparation, debate, caucusing, representation, teamwork, diplomatic leadership, and overall positive contribution to the work of her council.
The other students who represented the college at the conference were: senior Femi Alabi of Jos, Nigeria, the Council of Arab Environmental Affairs Ministries; sophomore Stephen Pedersen of Vernon Hills, Ill., the Joint Defense Council; and sophomore Lacie Rawlings of Ludington, the Council of Political Affairs. Hope College's country assignment for this year's conference was Syria.
The faculty advisor for Hope's Model Arab League team is Habeeb Awad of the Office of International Education. Students may receive credit for their participation by registering for the Model Arab League course offered by the department of history.
Michigan is of several states that sponsor a state-wide, university-level model, held annually in late February. Model Arab League is a student leadership development program administered by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Participants learn about the politics and history of the Arab world and the arts of diplomacy and public speaking. It is also a gateway to exchange programs in the Arabic world.
The other Michigan schools participating are Adrian College, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, Muskegon Community College, Regis College, Spring Arbor University and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.


text:
Sslhti.net is a 4 years old domain. The domain is linked to the IP address 18.104.22.168 which is provided by the hosting company To determine the registration information for a more.
It was registered by Samuel Soengdjadi , who can be reached at . The site is owned by PT. Seraya Sumber Lestari. Registration details show that it was registered on 08 Jan 2016 through ascio technologies, inc. danmark - filial af ascio technologies, inc. usa and will expire on 08 Jan 2021.
The site is being served through Apache.
Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain Name: SSLHTI.NET Registrar: ASCIO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. DANMARK - FILIAL AF ASCIO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. USA Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 106 Whois Server: whois.ascio.com Referral URL: Name Server: NS1.REGISTRANT-VERIFICATION.COM Name Server: NS2.REGISTRANT-VERIFICATION.COM Status: ok Updated Date: 08-jan-2016 Creation Date: 08-jan-2016 Expiration Date: 08-jan-2021 For more information on Whois status codes, please visit The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and Registrars. Domain Name: sslhti.net Registry Domain ID: 1992497215_DOMAIN_NET-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.ascio.com Registrar URL: Updated Date: 2016-01-08T06:39:19Z Creation Date: 2016-01-08T00:00:00Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-01-08T06:39:11Z Registrar: Ascio Technologies, Inc Registrar IANA ID: 106 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +44.2070159370 Domain Status: OK Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Samuel Soengdjadi Registrant Organization: PT. Seraya Sumber Lestari Registrant Street: Jl. DR. Sutomo No. 62 Registrant City: Pekanbaru Registrant State/Province: Riau Registrant Postal Code: 28141 Registrant Country: ID Registrant Phone: +761.37555 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: Registry Admin ID: Admin Name: Samuel Soengdjadi Admin Organization: PT. Seraya Sumber Lestari Admin Street: Jl. DR. Sutomo No. 62 Admin City: Pekanbaru Admin State/Province: Riau Admin Postal Code: 28141 Admin Country: ID Admin Phone: +761.37555 Admin Phone Ext: Admin Fax: Admin Fax Ext: Admin Email: Registry Tech ID: Tech Name: Samuel Soengdjadi Tech Organization: PT. Seraya Sumber Lestari Tech Street: Jl. DR. Sutomo No. 62 Tech City: Pekanbaru Tech State/Province: Riau Tech Postal Code: 28141 Tech Country: ID Tech Phone: +761.37555 Tech Phone Ext: Tech Fax: Tech Fax Ext: Tech Email: Name Server: ns1.ascio.com Name Server: ns2.ascio.com Name Server: ns3.ascio.com Name Server: ns4.ascio.com DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: The data in Ascio Technologies' WHOIS database is provided by Ascio Technologies for information purposes only. By submitting a WHOIS query, you agree that you will use this data only for lawful purpose. In addition, you agree not to: (a) use the data to allow, enable, or otherwise support any marketing activities, regardless of the medium used. Such media include but are not limited to e-mail, telephone, facsimile, postal mail, SMS, and wireless alerts; or (b) use the data to enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that sendqueries or data to the systems of any Registry Operator or ICANN-Accredited registrar, except as reasonably necessary to register domain names or modify existing registrations. (c) sell or redistribute the data except insofar as it has been incorporated into a value-added product or service that does not permit the extraction of a substantial portion of the bulk data from the value-added product or service for use by other parties. Ascio Technologies reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. Ascio Technologies cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data provided. By accessing and using Ascio Technologies WHOIS service, you agree to these terms.


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text:
After reading your post, I'm tempted to quote the philosopher Pee Wee Herman -- there seems to be a projection problem. It is true that Tarot history is not a subject that appeals to most Tarot enthusiasts. Many of them love the fictional "history", also known as folklore or pseudo-history, but for many of them the real history of Tarot contradicts their religious beliefs.
The sudden and temporary influx of anti-history posters to the Historical Research forum is a recurring phenomenon. It is an open question which posters are the invaders, which are the defenders, and who is intent on destroying the values that make historical discussions possible.debra wrote:I'm sorry to see that people raced over for a bit of destructive fun on the AT tarot history and iconography forum. ...
Those who want to make sure that Tarot's real history continues to be largely unknown are anti-historians. Anti-historians support "interesting" and provocative (which you might mistake for "informative") discussions which are outside the narrow boundaries of history. If history is the point of the forum then anti-historians, like you, should be actively discouraged.debra wrote:Members whose views I found most interesting and informative have been discouraged from posting. The tarot history topics pursued here seem narrowly defined....
History, done right, tends to be boring.
So naturally, the most interesting posters tend to be full of shit.
In part, this reflects the lack of any consensus among online Tarot enthusiasts. Few people know or care much about it. Of those who do know a bit of Tarot history, many are captivated by a pet theory or two. The consensus itself, to the extent that it exists, is about the facts rather than theories. This is the reason why history per se is such a tedious, pain-in-the-ass subject -- remember high school?debra wrote:I don't see that the forum has developed a consensus on tarot history among people with superior methods and expertise. I see some people basically ignored, and others intimidated and battered by relentless personal attacks in a macho game of dominance. This has nothing to do with academic rigor or scholarly discourse.
As for people being ignored or badgered, it is not a "macho game of dominance". Some things are not being appropriate for historical discussions. For example, in Robert Swiryn's huge thread last year, Mary attempted to gently guide him elsewhere WITHIN 24 HOURS! She attempted to explain to him that his idea might not be an historical theory; it might just be a fun story. He initially rejected this possibility. Over time he seemed to agree, even as he continued to present the material as Tarot history.
People like that can be ignored, they can be asked to shape up, then can be told to at least attempt to make sense and offer evidence and arguments, and they can be verbally abused to shut up. Some of these idiots will not ever shut the hell up, so threads are closed. It's not macho dominance, it's just good housekeeping -- a feminine virtue, if we are going to indulge sexist slurs. When the feather duster won't suffice, sometimes you have to clean crap off with a scraper.
On the other hand, consider Huck and myself on the question of his 5x14 Theory. I think that he's completely mistaken, addressing questions that are answered much better without his speculations. He thinks that I'm a blind follower of an old regime, out of date and out of touch with supposed new findings. He's much more knowledgeable than I am about many areas of Tarot history, but IMO he doesn't understand them clearly. We are not going to agree on the 5x14 Theory. So when he posted another round of ramblings about Chess, and Ross thought it worth commenting on, I had to laugh and point too -- it is silly on the face of it.
Still we co-exist, and have done so on Aeclectic, LTarot, and here. This is partly because neither of us is promoting Tarot from Atlantis, or even from Albigensians. His theory is an historical one. That is, he defends it with historical facts. Also, our co-existence is partly because Huck and I both believe strongly in freedom of expression. If I say something rude, then people are free to judge me based on my comments and to consider, on my behalf, whether they may be as factually accurate as they are rude. (Some people value truth more than manners.)
Beyond that, we try to not take it personally. Naturally, it may be impossible for many Tarot enthusiasts to "not take it personally" when someone mocks their origin myths, and I admit that when Huck denigrates playing-card historians with lines like, "there is virtually nothing really opposing [acceptance of the 5x14 Theory] beside not being good enough informed, not looking precisely enough and personally motivated dreams", I sometimes take offense on their behalf. (There are few defenders of the playing-card historians, so I take their part from time to time, defending them against Huck's charges of ignorance, sloppiness, and bias.) But if, someday, Huck discovers a manuscript describing the Ur Tarot (the way Marziano's text described a newly invented game), and if it turns out that he was correct all along, it won't impact any personal spiritual beliefs of mine. For me, Tarot is not part of some "greater truth" about the world, so I can accept what the evidence tells us.
You seem to be looking in the mirror again.debra wrote:As for the future of this forum: I see a naive and limited view of disciplinary research.
Your point being that you have an excuse for hating Tarot history and being blinded by bias, whereas people like Dummett are ideal, disinterested researchers who can approach the subject objectively?debra wrote:First, tarot history is of no particular interest to historians for good reason. And it interests us for our own individual reasons. Dummett got into it as a distraction from what he thought was really important. Some people come from an interest in divination or an occult (or occult-ish) motivation. Others don't.
Identifying both logical and factual errors in other people's papers is a huge part of academic publication. If an author so much as fails to acknowledge their assumptions, someone else will publish a paper doing so for them. Close reading, fact-checking, and tearing apart chains of logic are pretty fundamental in academic scholarship.debra wrote:Second, in the history and the humanities, identifying logical fallacies in someone's work is not how you get to the truth. Much of what is presented as historical evidence here is not impressive. Often what is presented here as rigorous logic, airtight argumentation, and examination of meaningful evidence does not exemplify objectivity and good judgment.
Again, you seem to be looking into the mirror. In YOUR world, where Tarot is part of people's religion, truth is of a different nature -- objectivity be damned.
So... you and yours are held to no standard whatsoever, but we "historians" must have training and expertise?debra wrote:Third, tarot history should be interdisciplinary and here it is not. Almost no one demonstrates expertise or training in art history. The people who consider themselves real historians tend to give the actual images and physical printed cards only superficial treatment. So claims to know the most important parts of the tarot history story are incomplete at best.
This seems oddly elitist -- LOL -- demanding credentials?
However, I do like your point. The idea that art history, an interdisciplinary approach (as promoted by Warburg and his "school", people like Panofsky, Gombrich, Wind, Seznec, Saxl, Katzenellenbogen, et al.), attention to the details of the cards and comparison of those images with related images from the entire world of pre-Modern European art... I agree that the iconographic approach is a valuable piece of Tarot history. In terms of published authors, Gertrude Moakley is the pre-eminent example. Let's see... who in the world of online Tarot enthusiasts has promoted THAT point of view? I'm pretty sure it wasn't you, Debra, nor anyone you find "interesting".
Clearly you don't know much about scholarly exchanges outside of journals. It is a cliche that the more petty the squabble the more vitriolic the exchanges can become.debra wrote:Fourth, some participants on the forum have a peculiar and distorted vision of academic exchange. If someone is exploring a line of thinking you don't believe, and you've asked relevant questions, given good reasons for thinking they are mistaken, and have no interest in helping develop that perspective--that's where scholars and intellectuals stop. To persist, to ridicule, to get angry or frustrated that one person doesn't take your point--this has nothing to do with knowledge or truth or learning.
Values routinely conflict.debra wrote:I'm sorry to see intensified efforts to establish the "agree or shut up" approach. Do you all really want to abandon the original promise that "The forum encourages freedom and independence of view, together with tolerance and care of others"? I hope not.
You and the other anti-history enforcers, folks who prefer to discuss how Cathars taught Kabbalah using Tarot cards in the temple of Kneph, want everyone to "feel welcome". That's a value, and it's a great value for a social club. To me, introducing those fantasy topics in a history forum is no different than introducing Mayan prophecies or ancient astronauts into the discussion, or introducing a turd into the punch bowl. I think that these "interesting" folks are the ones being rude. There are endless places for banal chit-chat about the pop-culture fantasy du jour, with or without Tarot as a conversation piece.
Best regards,
(Edited a bit for clarity... LOL -- hey! It was worth a try.)